Brillig

2012-01-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

WE'VE MOVED!

Brillig's official blog has a new home (circa mid 2011).

Please find us at http://brilligofficial.blogspot.com

Hope the see you there :)

Brillig is Wild for the Hearses!

2011-04-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

At last Brillig can announce that
(1) we have a brand new track available "The Hearse Song", and

(2) it's being used as the "roll out" music for Adelaide Roller Derby team "The Wild Hearses" during their bout on this Sunday 10 April! That's right, as the brightly coloured purple & orange team enters the arena ready for battle, you'll be hearing "The Hearse Song" over the loudspeakers in the Wayville Showground Arena.

We think that's frickin' COOL.

"The Hearse Song" has its basis in a Traditional American folk lyric which to this day is recited by children across the United States on Halloween.

Some of you may be familiar with the chorus....

“The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out
The worms play pinochle on your snout
They eat your eyes, they eat your nose
They eat the jelly between your toes"

The words have a touch of Tim Burton, don't ya think? (Full lyrics of Brillig's version >>)

Brillig adapted, arranged and set this to music, and the resulting track enjoys a lurching, uneasy Addam’s Family groove. With hypnotic acoustic & electric guitars, a super groovy bass, chimey autoharp, creepy accordion, and the requisite silly lyrics, Brillig have truly made this track their own. A shout out to awesome Adelaide-based drummer BJ Barker, who laid down some strident military-style beats with flair.

Recorded in March 2011 at Hillside Studios with Matt Hills and mastered by Disk-Edits' Neville Clark, "The Hearse Song" is hot off the press and ready to roll, derby style.

You can hear / buy this exclusive single online at Bandcamp, and it's also on Youtube (why not?).

Brillig would like to dedicate this song to The Wild Hearses – their favourite team in the Adelaide Roller Derby League - with the hope it inspires them to great feats of skill and daring. Special props to Miss Whirl!!

Get along to their bout this Sunday against the Mile Die Club, and hear Brillig's song over the speakers as The Wild Hearses greet the crowd. Tickets on sale from OzTix.

Go Hearses!

Brillig Sign Publishing Deal with JL

2011-04-06T22:53:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have heard already, there is big beautiful news in Brillig camp: they have been signed to Adelaide's own JL Music Publishing. The new arrangement will see JL Music represent the band's latest album and back catalogue for licensing and syncronisation worldwide.

"Brillig is so unique" said JL Music Director, Helen Page "the haunting presence of their live show translates to beautiful recordings that capture the essence of the band's darkly beautiful melodies." (Thanks Hels!)

JL's musical stable also includes such awesome acts as The Huckleberry Swedes, The Killgirls, The Touch, Laura Hill and many more. Brillig are currently featured on the JL Music Publishing homepage (aw, shucks!), and the band looks forward to many fruitful & fun times ahead.

http://www.jlpublishing.com.au/

The Old Captain Video Clip: Who's Who in the Cast

2010-12-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

www.youtube.com/brilligaustralia

Brillig's video clip for their sea shanty drinking song "The Old Captain" is a lament for the loss of a beloved character.

www.youtube.com/brilligaustralia

The clip features radio legend David "Daisy" Day as the Old Captain himself, along with cameos from many SA artists & personalities. See below for a full list of credits.

Made by the extraordinarily talented Nima Nabili Rad, Daniel Principe & crew, the clip was filmed at Brillig's spiritual home the wonderful Grace Emily Hotel in late September 2010.

"The Old Captain" is a track on the Adelaide trio's acclaimed album, "The Red Coats", available now from the Brillig store (http://brillig.bigcartel.com/).

Filmmakers:

Nima Nabili Rad - Director, Producer, Director of Photography
Daniel Principe - Director, Producer, Editor, Digital Colourist
Brendon Skinner - Focus Puller/Gaffer
Sian Bates - Focus Puller/Gaffer
Kabelo Sebesho - Camera Assistant

Brillig:
Matt Swayne - Guitar, Vocals
Elizabeth Reid - Vocals, Accordion
Denni Meredith - Bass

Special Guest:
David 'Daisy' Day as The Old Captain

Extras Cast (in alphabetical order, with music industry connection/band name):

Aliese Millington (LeighStarDust)
Alison Hughes
Andrew Roberts
Ben Macklin (Brillig guest drummer, ex Bit By Bats)
Cookie Baker (Cookie Baker)
Corinne Spalding (Grace Emily staff)
Craig Atkins (The Timbers)
Emma Luker (The Fiddle Chicks)
Gary Burrows (APRA)
Gary Millington
Gordon Andersen (Music SA, Mere Theory Manager)
Hannah Leane
Heidi Ing
Holly Staben
Ian Borchardt
Jackie Reichstein
Janine Swayne
Jessica Amber Hurst
Judy Millington
Megan Brat (Three D Radio)
Oliver Holmes
Paisley Pitman
Peter Brat (Three D Radio)
Phil Jarvis (Three D Radio, The Molting Vultures)
Rebecca Swayne
Robert Dunstan (Rip It Up)
Sarah O'Brien (The Timbers, Simon Peter Band)
Sharonne Belfer (APRA)
Simon Peter (Simon Peter Band)
Tony Dodd (The True Detectives)
Tony Pitman
Trish Flowers
Tristan Newsome (Self Preservation Society)
Violet Pitman
Warwick Ing (Your Motive For)
Zoom Strange

Tasting Notes to Tantalise Your Musical Tastebuds

2010-09-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

So here's the brief background: Brillig have been picked to be part of the massive 'Coopers Alive' festival this year (with 28 bands over 4 nights and 8 venues). We're doing an 'acoustic' showcase with The Timbers and Self Preservation Society, at the Wheatsheaf Hotel (Sat 16 October). We've all lovingly titled it "Silence can be like Thunder" (which is a line from Bob Dylan's 'Lovesick'), because we feel that represents our musical styles. Ticket holders get a free exclusive CD, souvenir playbill and chance to win a double pass to WOMAD's Friday night concerts. Oh, and the bands will be playing a special 'all-in' version of 'Lovesick' at the end of the evening- rocking out to Bob! There's a full press release, Advertiser Article and more info/links from http://www.brillig.com.au/gigs.htm.

The event is sponsored by - you guessed it - Coopers Brewery, and as an homage to the kind Coopers folks, we've come up with some 'TASTING NOTES' for the evening, so you can drink your favourite brew and get set for some songs of light & shade:

"Self Preservation Society is the Coopers Dark Ale of the three acts. With an imposing stage presence for a one man band, the Self Preservation Society combines the dark look of the man in black with the rich lyricism and dark humour of Nick Cave, to be served as an aperitif for this evening of thunderous silence…

The Timbers bring the Coopers Sparkling Ale to the table with bright notes and high energy reminiscent of such folk rock bands as Mumford and Sons or even the Pouges. They’ll make you feel like you’re at an Irish bar on the porch enjoying a coastal breeze brushing over your body as you dance away into the evening…

Rounding out this fine evening of sampling are gothic-folk trio Brillig, the Coopers Pale Ale of the evening. Don’t be fooled by their pale complexion, as the lyrical depth and storytelling clout displayed by Brillig have the same depth of flavour to a Coopers Stout. A wonderful presentation will have you ordering another round before you know it."

Raise your glass!

gotta love a free accordion

2010-06-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

This blog is basically a huge "thank you" to our pal Gary Burrows (who punters may know from SA APRA and The Rustlers).

He already has a rep for being one of the nicest guys in the biz, with a heart the size of a 747.

And then he'll go and do something like... give you a free accordion....!

Turns out he discovered someone was going to 'throw away' a perfectly good, full sized accordion because it belonged to their grandparents and they had no use for it.

So he arranged to take it off their hands.

Now, he could have tried to flog it on ebay and make a wad of cash. But, no. He knows that I play accordion in our band, so the first thing he thinks of is giving it to me.

It's a beauty. Not only is it full size, which is what I normally play, but it's black (big thumbs up, especially from Matt), with red bellows (more big thumbs up), and antique (probably) Brevetto Scandalli.

The sound? Like rich, velvet, dark chocolate.

Plus it's got a bass button sound called 'Grave.' You can't get any more Brillig than that.

We are already scheming on what to write & play on it, and a 'dueling' accordion track has been suggested, just to be ridiculous. (Suggested by someone who doesn't have to lug these things around to gigs already!). But if Matt or Denni put their hands up, who knows? But seriously, can't wait to give it an official whirl on stage at some appropriate point.

Til then, it has found a happy new home, a kind sibling (my original pearl Americana), and a place in my heart.

Thanks Gary! You are a legend.

- Elizabeth Brillig

brillig meets Paul Williams -or- "Never thought I’d get to meet the devil"

2010-04-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this isn't exactly new, but Brillig just started this blog and figured we'd better put *SOMETHING* up!

This tells the tale of how we met one of our fave songwriters, Paul Williams.

It's actually apropos as well - Brillig's cover of a song from the Phantom of the Paradise movie soundtrack (scored by Paul Williams) has just been included on the seminal website for that film, Swan Archives in April 2010.

Read all about this *new* news on our News page: www.brillig.com.au/news.htm.

Here's the blog itself:

brillig meets Paul Williams -or- "Never thought I’d get to meet the devil"**

At the recent S3 songwriting conference in Sydney ('08) Elizabeth & I were lucky enough to meet the songwriter Paul Williams.

Paul is known for penning mega-hits like "Evergreen" (he described working with Streisand as "like trying to have a picnic at the end of a runway"), "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "We've Only Just Begun" (The Carpenters), "Just an old fashioned love song" & "The Love Boat Theme" just to name a few (his songs have also been covered by Elvis, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald…and the list goes on).

"Not very brillig-y songs" I hear you thinking…true, but here's where Paul starts really kicking in for us…

He wrote "The Rainbow Connection". Truly one of the most beautiful songs of all time. Featuring Kermit The Frog asking many of life's most intriguing questions, we are left to ponder.

We also regard him ever so highly for his role playing the evil record tycoon SWAN and writing the music for Director Brian de Palma's (Carrie) 1974 cult Musical Horror Classic "Phantom Of The Paradise", which is one of brillig's all time favourite films. I won't even get started on the greatness of this film.

After having the pleasure of meeting Paul twice over two days it needs to be said that he is charming to say the least.

Impressively, he also fits into that category of people who begin reciting Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky upon hearing the name of our band.

Keen to hear which instruments we were using to play our particular brand of Gothic/Folk/Country music, the mention of banjo brought Paul to speak of his use of banjo at the beginning of "The Rainbow Connection" (for mine, the best use of that instrument ever) & how it's voice could be incredibly plaintive when played slowly.

His official role at the conference (no, it wasn't to have a conversation with brillig) was to present a small talk to 25 or so songwriters in the director's suite of a cinema focussing on his experiences writing for movies. I was lucky enough to sit next to Elizabeth Reid AND John Baker during this.

Immediately afterwards I asked Paul if he wouldn't mind having his photo taken with Elizabeth and myself and upon seeing us he smiled and said "cool, brillig came to see me talk". It's funny sometimes how as an artist such a large amount of inspiration can come in such a short time. After the talk John Baker expressed how he felt by saying "I can go home now" and I knew just what he meant.

Paul's second official conference obligation was to present a more general talk/be interviewed on the topic of songwriting in front of a couple hundred songwriters. After being at the more intimate talk Elizabeth, John and myself knew what we were up for so we sat close as possible to the stage (just a couple of rows back). To our complete joy there was a baby grand piano on stage and to illustrate points Paul (with piano backing from Chris Caswell) would break into song.
He performed (amongst other songs) "I'm going to go back there someday", which is one of Elizabeth's favourite tracks. It's the sad song in The Muppet Movie sung by the flightless bird Gonzo, who had only ever once briefly experienced flight (after buying too many helium balloons at a fair), and wished for just one more chance.

Another tear jerker followed - "You're gone", which is a masterpiece, but extremely heavy as it directly deals with the damage caused by addiction in Paul's past.

And bringing the house down he ended with "Rainbow Connection".

To meet an artist for which you have the utmost respect and to find them open, interested and passionate toward life and music is a truly fine experience.

- Matt Swayne

PHOTO: http://www.brillig.com.au/images/news_brilligpaullge.jpg

(**"Never Thought I'd Get To Meet The Devil" is a title from a song featured in Phantom Of The Paradise. The devil referred to is the evil Swan & not the delightful Paul Williams).